Alert! Radio

Alert! Radio was Canadian Dimension’s weekly podcast which ran from September 2005 - May 2012. It was recorded and broadcast first on CKUW 95.9 FM at the University of Winnipeg, and later on 101.5 UMFM at the University of Manitoba. It was also available on the Rabble Podcast Network.

Our show covered politics, economics, issues of social and environmental justice; featured interviews, commentaries, profiles of people in the news; had features on music, media, the arts; as well as special shows dedicated to new ideas or significant events.

As part of our on-going 50th anniversary celebrations, Canadian Dimension hosted an evening with Chris Hedges on Sept 20, 2013 at Bloor Street United Church in Toronto. At the event Hedges details the destruction of the left, the power of the Occupy movement among other topics. The audio includes introductions by Simon Black and Jim Stanford. Thanks to Sean Michael Turrell for the audio and all those who made the evening so wonderful.

On Mayday Noam Chomsky urges activists to focus their attention not simply on the economy and the environment, but how the market system underlies the fiscal and environmental crisis. Clayton Thomas Muller discusses the diverse strategies of First People’s against colonial structures that destroy their livelihoods and their environment. Nae Burrows describes the successful living-wage campaign in British Columbia.

Political Sociologist Trevor Harrison explains why Alison Redford’s PC’s won the Alberta election after all and what it means for Alberta and Canada. Political activist/blogger Richard Fidler updates the Quebec student strike and discusses the importance of the demand for zero tuition fees by the student group CLASSE. Rabble.ca editor Derrick Okeefe talks about the fallout of the NDP victory in two BC byelections last week and the intense resistance to the Kinder Morgan pipeline led by mayors along the BC coastline along with first nations and environmentalists.

Political scientist and Canadian Dimension collective member Dennis Pilon discusses what the federal budget reveals about Stephen Harper’s Plan for Reshaping Canada. Canadian Dimension collective member Andrea Levy talks about CD’s new issue that focuses on de-growth.

From Chiapas Mexico, Vancouver journalist Dawn Paley talks about the murder of Bernardo Vasquez, a community leader who led the protests against a Canadian mining company, Fortuna Silva in San Jose del Progresso,Oaxaco. From the streets of Montreal, Stefan Christoff talks with students and profs about the historic strike against tuition hikes. Judy Rebick explains why she thinks the election of Thomas Mulcair as leader of the NDP is a setback for the NDP and for progressive politics.

Judy Rebick, Murray Cooke and Dennis Pilon compare how the NDP would change under the leadership of Mulcair, Topp, Nash and Cullen. Greenpeace climate change campaigner Keith Stewart responds to the recent report claiming that coal and natural gas, not the tar sands are the real villains of global warming.

This episode of Alert gives a taste of Left Forum, a unique phenomenon in the U.S. and the world, that convenes the largest annual conference of a broad spectrum of left and progressive intellectuals, activists, academics, organizations and the interested public. Over a thousand speakers participate in 300 panels. The conference is held each spring in New York City and takes place this year from March 16 – 18th at Pace University. This year’s theme is “Occupy the System: Confronting Global Capitalism”. We speak with three of the participants about their contributions –Joel Kovel. Barbara Epstein, George Katsiaficas.

Sara Flounders, Director of the International Action Centre debunks the myth that Iran poses a nuclear threat and reveals that money and oil and containing Iran’s role as a regional Middle East power are the real motives behind the interventions under discussion. Noted Canadian author Yves Engler discusses Canada’s interest in working with other powers to crush Iran.

Lindsey Pinto, Communications manager of OpenMedia.ca. discusses the Harper government’s on-line spying bill and why opposition to it is so fierce. Tom Walkom, national affairs columnist for the Toronto Star, disputes the very premise of he Drummond Report—that Ontario faces an imminent fiscal crisis unless it cuts back its entire government infrastructure and government services including both health and education. He looks at the impact these cuts would have, especially on lower income Ontarians. York University politics professor David McNally who recently visited China, discusses that country’s state capitalist system, its economic successes and its gigantic income inequalities.

Micheal Vonn, Policy Director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association discusses soon-to-be introduced “lawful access” bills to expand police surveillance powers. The federal government has announced that it will soon be introducing legislation to increase the ability of police to intercept private communications and access more personal information stored electronically. Steven Staples, President of the Rideau Institute takes on pro-war lobbyists at the Conference of Defence Associations, part of an increasingly powerful National Security Establishment in Ottawa. Canadian Dimension labour columnist Herman Rosenfeld analyses the anti-union campaign shaping up in Canada and laments about the weak state of the labour movement’s opposition.

Noted health care analyst Pat Armstrong reflects on what lies behind Harper’s new health care policy. It’s not just a matter of numbers. Pensions expert Andrew Jackson shows why Harper’s pension policy is fiscally unnecessary and devastating, especially for low income seniors. Investigative journalist Martin Lukacs talks about Harper’s tar sands agenda and his efforts to sell it in Canada, the USA and Europe. He comments on the counter campaigns led by indigenous resistance movements in alliance with environmentalists, other activists and municipalities.

Carlo Fanelli analyses what was accomplished at Toronto City Hall to limit the regressive measures introduced by Mayor Rob Ford and the shape of the battles still to come. Political scientist Dennis Pilon reflects on the history of municipal amalgamations that bring to power right-wing mayors like Rob Ford in Toronto and Larry O’Brien in Ottawa largely owing to votes from once independent outlying middle class and wealthy suburban communities that swamp the votes of those residing in the city proper. Political economist Sam Gindin unravels the European debt crisis and austerity agendas of governments everywhere and their impact on a stagnating global economy. He examines the limitations of resistance movements as they emerged in 2011 and suggests new strategies for 2012.

The National Energy Board’s Northern Gateway hearings just began and are expected to carry on through the summer and beyond. Ben West of BC’s Wilderness Committee takes us through the process and tells us what to expect. Is the lockout of CAW workers at the Electro-Motive plant in London, Ontario, the beginning of an assault against private sector unionism in Canada? Labour commentator Doug Nesbitt discusses this question and offers some radical strategies for the labour movement, including occupation. What’s the real story behind the accusation that Iran is working to build a nuclear weapons capacity? Reporter Alex Kane comments from New York.

Expectations for 2012—2011 was a tumultuous year in Canadian and world politics. ALERT asked on-the-ground activists to talk about their expectations for 2012: Judy Rebick on Canadian politics; Clayton Thomas Muller on Indian Country; Mathew Brett on the Occupation Movement; Saul Landau on US politics; Sam Bahour on the Middle East.

Stephen Maher examines Egyptian politics on the week of the vote, Gerald Caplan questions why everyone but Iran can have nuclear weapons, Peter Kulchyski on Federal Legislation to disclose the salaries of First Nation Chiefs and Band Councillors.

Published since 1963, Canadian Dimension is a forum for debate on important issues that face the Canadian Left today, and a source for national and regional politics, labour, economy, world affairs and art.